I like using Mail and Address Book and iCal, but hate the fact that they're all seperate apps. I guess I got used to using MS Outlook at work and enjoy having all those features in one app. Do you folks think there's any chance that Apple will combine these apps into an all-in-one so I don't have to resort to Entourage? Thanks.
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Mail-iCal-Address Book All In One?
- Thread starter Cavemate K
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I doubt it. They already work together pretty well as separate apps, and they've all been around awhile with no hint of combining them. I would be shocked to see them combined in a future version of the OS.
Combined apps are an artifact of the days of MS-DOS. There is simply no need to combine Mail, Address Book, and iCal. They communicate seamlessly with each other without having to change modes. Also, they are more than just apps, they are system resources. They are available to every other app on your Mac. Some third-party developers actually take advantage of this fact.
Entourage does all those things in one app doesn't it? You would have to get Office though, if you don't already have it. Or maybe it doesn't do all of them but I thought it did.
Entourage 2004 is modal, which has been a bad thing since 1984. The Microsoft app also does not share its databases with other apps. Also, the fact that Entourage is not free is not inconsequential. The fact it is subject to spontaneous database corruption is inexcusable.
Sorry... never used it, didn't know it was so terrible. What about the other office apps? Are those okay? Cause I'm certainly not giving up Word...
Until the recent release of Nisus Writer Pro, Microsoft Word 2004 was the only full-featured commercial wordprocessor available for the Mac. Word is very much the productivity killer, but is probably more compatible with every other version of Word than any two different versions of Word for Windows are with each other. Microsoft Excel 2004 continues to be the only full-featured commercial spreadsheet for the Mac. PowerPoint 2004 works well enough. However, Apple's own Keynote seems to produce presentations that make PowerPoint presentations look like the creations of school children using sidewalk chalk. Of the applications in the Office 2004 suite, none has a clearer mission than Entourage 2004 and none fall shorter of its mission. Entourage has the singular mission of bringing Exchange-compatibility to MacOS X. It can't hold a candle to Outlook 2001, which is MacOS 9 only.
Thunderbird does integrate Mail and Address Book components, but the calendar tool is still in development as an add-on (Lightning) or standalone (Sunbird). I haven't tried the calendar component yet, and since it hasn't reached 1.0 yet (it's at 0.5), it may or may not be mature enough to use for daily work.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/
I was just thinking about this ical has a mail service but its always grey'd out for me. It would be alot easier if they could get this to work in stead of printing to a pdf then mailing that...
You might try Chandler, but be prepared that not everything works as smooth as with Mail/Contacts/iCal or Thunderbird, but it is a promising start: http://chandlerproject.org/
I would not say entourage is terrible. It has its problems, but I would say that mail, ical, and address book do as well. I would like them in one app so my dock is less cluttered, but otherwise it's fine.
Quoting from Chandler's FAQ:
"Q Can I use Chandler for Email?
Chandler is not a full-fledged email client. Do not expect to be able to replace your current email application with Chandler Preview. However, email is an important part of Chandler and we hope to continue to build out email functionality. Today, Chandler sends and receives email (sent from other Chandler users) and downloads messages via 3 IMAP folders."
So you are right, the email part is not exactly fully developed. My fault, only having it briefly tried some time ago...